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Take the last train to Clarksville...

They are shutting down for "the season" and are only open on Weekends, until Nov 1. Then, the last train is out of there until April, 2012.

So, back I go on Saturday, which looks to be weather cooperative. Sunday, not so much. Looks like rain, rain, rain.

Last edited by DonSchap; 10-13-2011 at 01:39 PM.

Don Schap - BFA, Digital Photography A Photographer Is ForeverLook, I did not create the optical laws of the Universe ... I simply learned to deal with them.
Remember: It is usually the GLASS, not the camera (except for moving to Full Frame), that gives you the most improvement in your photography.flickr® & Sdi

School work is chugging down the tracks!

Don,

You and I must be on similar wave lenghts. This past Sunday I continued photographing for my final "Large Format" portfolio assignment. I hauled my photo backpack with the A900 (w/ 28-90, 28mm prime and 50 mm prime) and Yashikamat TLR medium format camera, along with the 4x5 view camera (case, film holders and all) and tripod off the beaten track to get photographs of tressel bridge in Campo, CA. The bridge and railway serves the San Diego Railroad Museum.

Here are a couple of shots, including hauling the gear out onto the center of the bridge. Boy what a drop!!!

Darin... looks like a real test of ... balance? Hauling gear into these remote locations... man, that's dedication. Hat's off to ya!

Maybe it is my personal taste, or working with those darn HDR shots... but, I thought the cast shadow was a little too heavy, almost making the bridge look like it had broken, until you looked closer... and showing more "shadow detail" in the bridge, itself, and across the gap might be a little more aesthetically pleasing...

Again... the image is the image.

I have to admit, we do not have much in the way of the yawning abyss or canyons, here in Illinois... or anywhere conveniently close, for that matter. The West is definitely the place to be for that. I was considering a trip along the Silverton-Durango narrow-gauge line, about 1400 miles away, in southern Colorado... but, I suspect that is still a few years away. The cost of these trips is always a major consideration. To travel the way I am use to going (Presidential Class) is about $179 per seat, one way.

Okay, okay... wishful and opulent thinking. Maybe the S.O. will provide this as a gift, some Christmas. You never know.

My last trip to Colorado yielded some fun stuff, but I was pressed for time and did not have the luxury of all my gear. Obviously, the more you can get to the location, the better lighting control you might have. Scouting the location always makes for better decisions.

So, keeping that in mind, is there anything you would NOW take, that you did not, in the previous series of shots?

Last edited by DonSchap; 10-14-2011 at 09:44 AM.

Don Schap - BFA, Digital Photography A Photographer Is ForeverLook, I did not create the optical laws of the Universe ... I simply learned to deal with them.
Remember: It is usually the GLASS, not the camera (except for moving to Full Frame), that gives you the most improvement in your photography.flickr® & Sdi

Really thinking composition

Don's post above brings up a really important aspect of photography. An aspect that often separates the master photographer from the every day Joe with a camera. As master photographer Edward Steichen put it, a photographer studies a subject until something unique captures his or her eye whereas a picture taker just snaps away at whatever is in front of them.

In my current class, my professor is helping me to refine my photographic vision beyond subject matter, quality of lighting (time of day, shadow play, contrast, etc.), and rule of thirds compositional choices towards studying the scene to see how lines and shapes play into the composition. How do you want to portray the subject matter? Do you want a sense of depth? Do you want the subject isolated? Do you want to lead your viewer to see what you think is important or do you want them to decide what is important or otherwise draw their own conclusions as to what is happening/being portrayed in you photograph. And, perhaps, one of the more important choices, when to actually take the picture (that is, if you're not doing still life).

A900 w/ Sigma 28-90 @ 28mm f22 1/200 ISO 400

Now I can tell, this is something that is going to take time to develop. But, I would recommend checking out the works of individuals like Robert Adams, Gerry Johannson and Henry Wessel (no known relationship) to see how they use lines in their scenes. For example check out the following article and attached photos http://lightbox.time.com/2011/10/12/...-landscape/#14 and in particular this photograph #15. Very simple, basic and sublime. But if you study the photograph, you will see multple triangles in the lines of the landscape and the way Henry Wessel chose to frame and locate his camera to capture that scene.

Training myself

I am a little disenchanted at what was available to shoot, outside the train barns. The train barns are absolute hell for a photographer, as there is only eight feet, at the most, between the side of the trains inside. That is all you have to shoot something that could literally be the entire length of the entire barn (I'm not kidding - hundreds of feet long. You'd need a 1mm Ultra-Ultra Wide-Angle lens! LOL) Even with the punch of the Metz 76 MZ5... can't really see that far.

Anyway... popped what I could.

Train Barn 9 (Articulated Trains) "The Nebraska Zephyr"

"North Shore Articulated"

and... the other end of it.

Outdoor Trains

Back in the Barn - Barn 3

There were 30-40mph winds, this day... and I'm telling you, the long barns act as wind tunnels, as all that air races through them. It took a reasonable 65-degree day and may it feel like early winter...indoors!

Last edited by DonSchap; 10-28-2011 at 03:35 PM.

Don Schap - BFA, Digital Photography A Photographer Is ForeverLook, I did not create the optical laws of the Universe ... I simply learned to deal with them.
Remember: It is usually the GLASS, not the camera (except for moving to Full Frame), that gives you the most improvement in your photography.flickr® & Sdi

The UWA Zoom -> SIGMA 12-24mm f/4-5.6 DG EX

I have to agree, distortion to a degree... but then again, given the close quarters of the train barns makes for quite a challenge. Again, this was a "preliminary" series of shots, with only the bagged zooms tagging along, in order to check the lighting issues and lens length solutions. I will, more than likely, go with the PRIMES, once I am setting up each shot selected. I didn't even need the telephoto zoom. Just weighed me down.

When you close in on 16mm, you tend to start curving the world. I may go after it with the TAMRON SP AF 14mm f/2.8 and the SIGMA 20mm f/1.8 DG EX to see if they fare any better, next weekend. I am bringing in the studio strobes/hot lights to try and improve many of these indoor images, with a bit of an artsy flair. With the hot lights, I could HDR some of them, too, and pull up the shadows a bit. The biggest issue is the power demands for these lights.

Using the camera's DRO levels is kind of unpredictable and more of a "one-shot, spray and pray" type of shooting. I would like to have a little more thought in my work than that.

Thanks for the comment and I will try to reduce that distortion.

Last edited by DonSchap; 10-18-2011 at 11:29 AM.

Don Schap - BFA, Digital Photography A Photographer Is ForeverLook, I did not create the optical laws of the Universe ... I simply learned to deal with them.
Remember: It is usually the GLASS, not the camera (except for moving to Full Frame), that gives you the most improvement in your photography.flickr® & Sdi

Back to Union...

Okay, Peter...

I kept looking at the Burlington "Nebraska Zepher" shot and I reconsidered the angle(s) I had available to me. I was truly dissatisfied. So... I returned to Union, IL with a little more ambition ... and requested from the museum their permission to bring in the heavy-duty lighting. Permission was given and I went back at it. Happily, things in Train Barn #9 opened up a bit, as they backed up the other (red) engine into the barn from where it had been sitting alongside the rather long reflective train, last weekend.

I had my longest extension cords with me and positioned the three strobes, using collar reflector bowls, about fifty-feet (17-meters) and one hundred-feet (30-meters) apart.

Anyway, I put up my three 750W/sec studio strobes and the two smaller fill strobes. I mean, talk about the "Family of Angles." It was truly a major event even trying to balance the lighting and not get monster hot spots.

I also stood about four feet higher up, on a ladder I brought along, to provide a better angle.

I have to admit, lighting something like this, by yourself, is extremely exhausting and time consuming. It took about two hours to get set-up, get the hot-spot lighting shifts resolved in order to "get the shot" to look half-decent and then break back down. I was just totally exhausted and no longer interested in trying to light another engine. Next weekend, maybe. Something with PAINT!

Last edited by DonSchap; 10-29-2011 at 07:06 AM.

Don Schap - BFA, Digital Photography A Photographer Is ForeverLook, I did not create the optical laws of the Universe ... I simply learned to deal with them.
Remember: It is usually the GLASS, not the camera (except for moving to Full Frame), that gives you the most improvement in your photography.flickr® & Sdi

In the continuing pursuit of...

After the pull out of the Illinois Railroad Museum shoot, I was heading down IL-20, toward I-90, where there just happens to be a glider port. A few of the things that I loved as a teen were my days in the Civil Air Patrol... and the private airport with the cadet-glider program we had going. It was a lot of fun, then... it happened... I grew up.

Anyway, because I really never grew up, I found myself drawn back to the gliders. As I drove by, it was such a terrific day (sparse clouds and the wind at 6-10mph)... and there were at least 20-cars at the little airport, I just had to see what was happening. Weird thing, back in 1973, when I was in C.A.P., we used a Cessna 301 "Birddog" to tow the gliders up. Here it is, almost 40 years later... and the very same type of Viet Nam-era plane being used! It was de-ja-vue all over again.

I asked one of the guys just inside the small hanger at the field, "Who is in charge?" The guy smiles back, and asks, "What do you mean?" It was funny. He then told me the "glider club" owned the airstrip and that all the members ran the field in a loosely organized and friendly way. Being one that is more akin to a military or business infrastructure... this was bordering on being a little too loose for my comfort level. I remember all the stories about the dilution of responsibility... and this definitely was looking like one of those moments.

Anyway, I really wanted to know who would have a say about my photographing the fun... and the guy just said, "Just don't get in the way."

Okay... I'm good with that (All shots were taken with the α850 and 70-400mm f/4-5.6 G SSM combo). So, I get off to one side of the airstrip and in comes the first glider

Okay, that was cool... then I spotted this guy with something I really had wanted to see operate: a self-propelled glider, with the "stow-away" pusher prop (Ground assistant just let go of the wing).

I'm sorry, but to not have to wait for a tow plane to drag your sorry butt into the sky. There is a lot to be said about that. Unfortunately, after some discussion with the ground assistant (in that first image), these kind of gliders are tricky, unpredictable and just havoc to maintain. Understandably so and with the cost involved in the purchase of these high-end aircraft, hardly a bargain. Judgement: stick to a tow plane.

Anyway... a few more shots to toss into the flight portfolio. Definitely worth the stop.

Last edited by DonSchap; 10-22-2011 at 11:35 PM.

Don Schap - BFA, Digital Photography A Photographer Is ForeverLook, I did not create the optical laws of the Universe ... I simply learned to deal with them.
Remember: It is usually the GLASS, not the camera (except for moving to Full Frame), that gives you the most improvement in your photography.flickr® & Sdi

I kept looking at the "Burlington Zepher" shot and I reconsidered the angle(s) I had available to me. I was truly dissatisfied. So... I returned to Union, IL... and requested from the museum their permission to bring in the heavy-duty lighting. It was given and I went back at it. Happily, things in Train Barn #9 opened up a bit, as they backed up the other (red) engine into the barn from where it had been sitting alongside the rather long reflective train, last weekend.

I had my longest extension cords with me and positioned the three strobes, using collar reflector bowls, about fifty-feet (17-meters) and one hundred-feet (30-meters) apart.

Anyway, I put up my three 750W/sec studio strobes and the two smaller fill strobes. I mean, talk about the "Family of Angles." It was truly a major event even trying to balance the lighting and not get monster hot spots.

I also stood about four feet higher up, on a ladder I brought along, to provide a better angle.

...

I have to admit, lighting something like this, by yourself, is extremely exhausting and time consuming. It took about two hours to get set-up, get the hot-spot lighting shifts resolved in order to "get the shot" to look half-decent and then break back down. I was just totally exhausted and no longer interested in trying to light another engine. Next weekend, maybe. Something with PAINT!

Now that's effort Don! But, with such a reflective surface, I'm surprised you chose to aim your lights at what appears to be close to a 90 degree angle. My thinking is that your lights at a shallow angle (i.e. nearly parallel with the train) would have given more effective and even lighting along the length of the train and eliminate areas of flash hot spots.